


Amalgamation

by Haberdasher



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avatar Sasha James, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Memory Alteration, Sasha James Lives, Shapeshifting, Stranger Avatar Sasha James, no proofreading we die like archival assistants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:14:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25740412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: AU where, instead of being consumed by the Not-Them, Sasha was able to merge with it, Distortion-style.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52
Collections: TMA Girls Week





	Amalgamation

Sasha James recognized the thing that wanted to kill her just before it did.

Or, rather, Sasha James recognized that she could not recognize the thing that wanted to kill her, that it was not a thing that could be recognized, that its essence was to take on that of others and take their place, leaving most none the wiser.

Sasha had thought before about masks and true selves, about how thinking any one facet of one’s personality is truer than another is a falsehood, about how the only truth to be found was in one’s actions, not in one’s justifications thereof.

Sasha could understand this creature, this thing that was many different people and yet none of them all at once, could even respect its goal. She simply didn’t want to become its latest victim.

And, at the end of their fight, she wasn’t. Not exactly.

What emerged from Artefact Storage that day was not Sasha James, but it wasn’t Not-Sasha, either. It was both, and it was neither, and it was whichever helped it survive more.

Sasha didn’t look quite like she had before--she’d gone a bit shorter, a bit skinnier, her glasses smashed on the floor of Artefact Storage but also no longer needed--but nobody noticed. As far as anyone was concerned, Sasha had always looked exactly as she did now.

And when Sasha had an idle thought about wishing her hair wasn’t so naturally curly, it straightened itself immediately, and this, too, was apparently something that had always been the case, at least according to her coworkers when she asked.

Jon grew paranoid after Prentiss’ attack, after learning that Gertrude’s corpse had been resting below the Institute for some time unnoticed, but he never noticed the changes in Sasha. He couldn’t, not even with the powers he was gaining. The part of Sasha that wasn’t quite Sasha had been playing this game a lot longer than he had.

He did find out the truth eventually, though. Her voice had changed when the rest of her had, had grown softer and cooler and more confident, and when he found the tapes she’d hid, the difference was obvious enough.

Even when the web table no longer bound her, though, her ties to the Institute still did. Perhaps that was what saved her, in the end, made sure that she wasn’t the one who ended up bloodily murdered that day. She was a monster now, perhaps, but she was the _Institute’s_ monster.

When she wanted to look weak and unassuming, she did. When she wanted to look big and scary, she did. Whatever she needed to be, she became, a not-so-human chameleon.

When it came time to face the circus, Sasha found that appearing as a living mannequin was as easy to her now as giving herself red hair. It didn’t feel as weird as she expected, either. It felt almost... _right_. There was a kinship to be found between them, that much she knew, and though that was not her true form, it was no falser than any other she adopted.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that she was forced to stay behind at the Institute while most of the others went to take down the circus once and for all. Truth be told, Sasha wasn’t entirely sure what side she would have taken in that conflict herself.

After that, though, when the Unknowing had come and gone, the wax museum blown to bits and the person she was closest to gone with it... that was when it all went to hell.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, consider following me on tumblr at [haberdashing](https://haberdashing.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
